Is DHS Monitoring DailyKos?

[kpete]

Is DHS Monitoring DailyKos?
by Darrell J Gahm
Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 12:47:15 PM PDT

Normally, I would figure that a government agency tasked to protect our homeland from foreign threats and terrorist activity would not be bothered to monitor the on-line political ramblings of a gaggle of pseudo-anonymous lefty bloggers.

I guess I was wrong...

This morning, our own Delaware Dem posted a diary asking for information about various blogs run by Dailykos members - in a hope to update the Kossacks with blogs link.

I, like a few others, posted in the diary - mainly because I was a part of an effort to accomplish this task a few months ago that kind of fizzled out. In my comment, I referenced my own blog in my signature line. Thinking nothing of this, as every comment I post on Daily Kos has this information, I went about my normal day - making a few more snarky comments on C&J and getting some work done in between.

One thing I should mention is that I obsessively check the Sitemeter statistics for my blog. Though my readership is small - just breaking 4000 visits in 8 months - I like to check if anyone new has stopped by to read my poetry.

This afternoon, I received such a visit. Below is the screen shot of the Sitemeter page for this particular visitor:


(by the way, it might not be such a good idea for me to post the IP address for the DHS, so I blanked out that tidbit of info)

So, it would seem that this is one of two things: someone at the DHS is a reader of Daily Kos and a friendly Democrat, or DHS is watching us.

I'll let you decide.

Darrell
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/12/154715/351

[Terran1212]

1. Sister works for DHS

They monitor many protesters; it's their policy.

[SeattleGirl]

2. And in the meantime, the borders, ports, and other important

places in the country go unchecked, or sloppily monitored. But hey, as long as the evil lefties are kept under watch, nothing else matters, right? :sarcasm:

[leftchick]

5. I am so glad to know we are protected from the terrorist

peace moms. :sarcasm:

[Terran1212]

7. The best part is they guard against animal rights activists

Because we know a handful of people picketing outside the Georgia Aquarium are obviously an underground militant cell.

[lala_rawraw]

25. What I wonder is why they don't monitor the right ever...

you know, the ones who actually bomb things!

[Neil Lisst]

24. They also monitor DU boards and follow them to sites of members.

Like you, I saw them on the tracker - NSA, IRS, and SAC headquarters.

All reading my cartoon that is online? They came to the site through one of my threads here about Bush and Osama speaking the same "God made me do it" language.

[ReverendDeuce]

3. 63.163.104.32/28 # Department of Homeland Security (SPRINTLINK)

There you go.

They have a crappy /28... only 16 IPs.

Taken from:

http://www.packetstormsecurity.org/docs/misc/fed.ipSpace.txt

[YouthInAsia]

23. can you block the IP with your anti-virus/internet security and

if so, HOW?

[AndyA]

4. More than likely a bot of some sort

Perhaps looking for keywords that would flag your site for further investigation. They could easily enough disguise who they are, if they wanted to. The visit length was 0 seconds, so I would bet it was just a bot that hit your site briefly. A page on your site could never load that fast, so a human wouldn't have a chance to see anything. The bot probably grabbed your html, which will be scanned later.

[Betsy Ross]

11. Scanned for buzz words

I like to end my posts and email with

Osama, Sadam, jihad

making it easier for them watch me. I'm sorry. Although I would like to be protected from hackers, if the govmint is watching me I say FU.

[LoKnLoD]

6. Is your site

www.theholyhandgrenade.blogspot.com? I would click on that too, I love Monty Python!!

[jukes]

8. not very well

the incompetent bastards.

[this_side_up]

9. the latitude and longitude? what city is that? n/t

[file83]

17. It's Washington D.C. Google map link here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=38.9119+-77.0167&ll=38.938182,-77.014503&spn=0.007878,0.156727

[Atman]

10. First of all, there is a web site called Homeland Security

Which is a spoof. HOWEVER...

My site has received visits from the treasury dept, the CIA, the CDC, NIH, several "military command" something or other. But my favorite, especially after posting my Tom Delay cartoons, several visits from "Sugarland, TX."

Also, Plano, Tx, a lot.

EDIT: Just looking through stats...this is a new one...

Tehran, Tehran, Iran, Islamic Republic Of
(82.XX.XXX.233)

[KoKo]

12. Atman are you sayin...."don't worry about it..." because who knows

if it isn't "Dems in disguise" trying to sort out their lives for info when they live in Bushworld?"

The Bushies are SO INCOMPETENT...wouldn't their scaring us about our "internet usage" just be another ploy or scare tactic to threaten us...to get the ordinary folks we are trying to reach out there...to not hit sites they think could hurt their jobs or lifestyles?

INTIMIDATION...but with LITTLE to BACK IT UP...:shrug:

[Atman]

14. Here's two more I just found..

Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
ae1-as8993.alshamil.net.ae (217.xxx.x.103)

Kyonggi-do, Osan, Korea, Republic Of
pc190-117.arpstl.army.mil (198.xx.xx.117)



Anyway, when I say there is a "spoof" Homeland Security site, it is like the Whitehouse.org site. It looks real, but when you read it, it is obviously a joke. besides, real government sites don't end in .org

[populistdriven]

21. What better IPs for the smartys at DHS to spoof than those?

It may even be their policy to send spoofed traffic to all liberal and peaceniks sites so they can supoena your ISP for the records in case they ever want to bring you down or black mail you

[wuushew]

13. How accurate are the Lat/Long coordinates?

Mapquest puts the address on New Jersey Avenue between Q and R street.

[file83]

18. I doubt they are very accurate - router coordinates rarely are...

...unless this DHS computer is operating out of a residential area...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=38.9119+-77.0167&ll=38.91219,-77.01658&spn=0.002296,0.006051&t=k

[ShortnFiery]

15. I hope not! Just in case HIDE your teen age daughters ...

:P

[dflprincess]

16. It looks like they weren't there very long.

I suppose once they figured out there was not kiddie porn to look at, they moved on.

[Julius Civitatus]

19. This happened before in 2004

Right before the 2004 elections, there was a flurry of visits from DHS and military intelligence to lefty blogs. I remember talking about this with other bloggers (back when I actually had the time to blog regularly). It seems that within a few days, just about every prominent lefty blogger got visits from the same domains. It was creepy.

Again, after what Rummy said about "fighting the Internet," nothing surprises me anymore.

[gordianot]

20. This also happens on DU.

I have traced similar inquiries.

[EVDebs]

22. FromTheWilderness's Mike Ruppert, in Crossing The Rubicon, says

that Windows based systems are hackable and that US government prefers Apple, for what it's worth.